The first release for the joint project from multi-award winning artists Josh Rennie-Hynes & Stephen Grady; The Ahern Brothers. Comb That River centres itself around a young boys lonely adventures through vacant suburbs and surrounding bushland.
Actor Jacob blocking for one of the end scenes.
The dreamy melody and lyrics set the mood for this clip as we delve into the imaginary world of our young protagonist. Contrasting between lush natural bushland and suburban sprawl he rides his bike alone in search of adventure.
Bradley the director had this to say on the videos creation -
"The Ahern Brothers told me where the songs beginnings emerged from and how they would like to see the song represented. Our actor Jacob was perfect for the shoot and was he first experience on film. The creation process was kept really organic, allowing for the character to explore his world without judgment. The crew was Jacob and myself for the entire shoot and we utilised all the natural light available. We found the old boat and bike in rubbish piles out the front of someone’s home for garbage collection. Giving these discarded items a new life is what I really enjoyed about making this clip."
Director Brad & his father prepping for the fishing scene.
Josh one song writing half of The Ahern Brothers delves into the songs origins, "This is the first song Steve and I had ever written together. We’d just flown into San Francisco that day from Melbourne and were feeling the effects of jetlag and delirium, which seemed to really help the songwriting process. We sang the chorus melody over and over until the lyric ‘Comb that river’ finally came. We’d both just finished watching the series ‘Stranger things’ and loosely based the story of the song around that."
A riding scene from the video.
The creative was a new angle for both Josh and Stephen, in using the visual aspect as its own expressive piece. Stephen reflects on this process,
"Even though we're a new band, the last thing we wanted to create was two guys sitting in a park playing acoustic guitars. What excited us was creating something entirely unique and its own thing. Something timeless. But still connected to the song. And all the credit goes to Brad Murnane from Spilting Films. He directed, shot it, edited it, and the kid, That kid was perfect! It was his first time acting too, I'm told.
We told Brad we wanted to show the innocence of youth, a kid who has lost something, whether that be a best friend, his identity, his joy, his brother. That classic 80s film 'Stand By Me' and that incredible tv show 'Stranger Things' were defiantly an inspiration. We love it and couldn't be more proud."
Check out the full video below. For more on The Ahern Brothers check out their facebook page.